Okay...decided to remove and paint the intake...shouldn't be too hard. Just remove, clean with some sort of cleaning agent (any recommendations?), paint with a few coats of heat resistant engine paint, clear...let dry a while in between coats and clears...but when I go to reassemble do I have to torque it to certain specs? Pop seems to think I need a torque wrench or I'm going to screw things up with "seals and stuff...then you'll have engine proglems...blah blah" is he making this a bigger issue than it is? He is recommending I not remove the intake at all. Do I have to worry about getting any kind of new gaskets or anything? Kinda new to this lt1 stuff...any advice welcomed.

John

 

Its a pain in the ***. You will need new gaskets, a nice sized bottle of RTV, a torque wrench and the tightening sequence. New throttle body gasket, EGR gasket ect... Have fun! You might wanna do some research on it before you do it. Have a chiltons or haynes manual handy aswell.
EDIT: Fuel line disconnect tool, new injector "O" rings... still more

 

Your going to need the complete intake gasket set, and rtv. As for the torque chiltons says it is a must but not to difficult, 71 inch pounds to start with all the way around and 35 foot pounds around the second trip. The tb needs to be 18 ft. pounds. As for the rest of the bolts you need to make sure not to overtighten so just get them tight and check again in a week or so. Out of curiousity what color are you going with i am going to do mine black next week.

 

Just a quite little question.. how do you have a Z28 SS? In 1996 they didn't make an SS.. correct me if i'm wrong but 1997 was the first year they came back out with the SS.. so is it a Z28 with SS hood and spoiler?

 

if you buy the gaskets from advance in the felpro kit, it will come with the intake manifold gaskets, a tube of rtv silicone, injectior o-rings and the throttle body gasket. it is not hard to do at all, probably the easiest part of the cam install i just did was yanking the intake.

 

How do you guys find it so easy? Their are like 6 vaccume lines comming off it, and the 1 in the front(which im going to plug)Thoes are just confusing. The fuel rail is a bitch to take off. I didnt find it to fun. Its worth it though, painted mine dark red and in-between the fuel rail is white(TRYED for the LT4 look). You should buy some aluminum polish and clean up your fuel rails while their off. I was amazed at what 5 minutes of polishing does, they turn out chrome. Never would of thought they would turn out like that, they were disgusting!

 

Actually the SS line of camaros was re-introduced in 1996 . There was
a SS line as well as a SS Z28 line . There are a lot of members here
with a SS or a SS Z28 . But there was only a limited number on the
SS and SS Z28 models

 

If you're talking about the one under the TB, DO NOT just plug it up. It goes to the PCV valve and is needed very much. Just my .02

 

Alright, alright. I am getting mixed signals from you guys.

Some say it's a bitch to do, others, not so much. What I do have is time (car's put away till spring break). But what I don't have is experience. Yes, I did a t-top conversion on my old camaro, changed the clutch in this bad boy earlier in the year. But both projects were with the supervision (okay help) of my mechanically inclined Dad. This would be on my own at school. I have a limited set of tools (I'd have to borrow the t wrench and fuel line tools from Autozone). I think I can do it. I've done a lot of research, but I think I'm going to wait till it warms up. I have limited space at the apartment and I would just be pushing it.

Plan to paint it red to match my car. I'll polish the lines on the top of the intake to be a nice silver in color.

And yes, the car is a Super Sport, do some research.


John

 

Its really not a big deal at all. Not nearly what some of these guys are making it to be. You should be able to have the intake off within 2 hours at the very most, even if its your first time doing it. Theres just a few vacuum hoses to pull off. Unplug the electrical connectors. Unbolt the egr tube. Unbolt it and yank it off. You should only really need the intake gaskets, some rtv, and maybe injector O rings for cheap insurance, although I haven't ever replaced mine.. Anyhow, the throttle body could stay on if you wanted to just tape it off, but it would make paint easier if you took it off. Either way a new TB gasket isn't much $$. Also, you dont need to disconnect the fuel lines, the fuel rails can be pulled off and set to the side with the fuel lines still attatched. I did this when I did my cam install and also when I fixed a head gasket leak. The main thing when working on these cars is dont be affraid to crawl up on the engine and get right in there while you work!

Aaron

 

Your going to get differing responses here. Personally I can have an lt1 completely pulled out of a car in a few hours, but I've done quite a few engine swaps in the F-Body before. The intake is a piece of cake except for the back bolts and crap. As far as your torque specs. I have NEVER torqued anything down to "spec" except for internal engine fasteners and headbolts. You get a feel for how torqued down something needs to be after years of working on automobiles.

Another factor is going to be your tool selection/collection. I have ALOT of time and money in my tools, but I work with them ALL the time. some people don't have the option of going out and spending thier money on tools. but every thing helps.


as far as painting the intake goes. I would have it powdercoated, go to http://www.cardomain.com/id/southwell Page 3. Powdercoating will look ALOT better, and stay that way for a long time. If you still want to paint it, your going to need to de-grease it. I would do the following.


Engine degreaser, and Power washer. after that blow it dry, and scrub any still dirty parts with dawn and HOT water, and rinse till clean. next wipe it down with laquer thinner, and allow to dry.


also make sure you dry out the area under the oil splash shield on the bottom of the intake. crap likes to collect under there. High temp engine paint and clear are your best bet to paint it.


Mike

 

I recommend powdercoating also.

Pic 2

 

I just finished re-installing the intake on my 97 this week ...not a hard job just take your time and mark all lthe lines I would also recommend a not using the sealent that comes with the gasket set but buy some high temp copper RTV